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Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $19.94
12 bottles: $19.54
The bright mirabelle, Amalfi-lemon and white-pepper aromas pour from the glass of this energetic gruner veltliner,...
JS
92
Rapid Ship
White
750ml
Bottle: $19.94
12 bottles: $19.54
A classic Gruner Veltliner for the notes of lentil, white peach, smoke and milled pepper. Lithe and creamy, this...
WS
90
White
1.0Ltr
Bottle: $14.30
12 bottles: $14.01
This wine shows a light yellow color with green tints. The wine offers apple and pear fruits on the nose. Dry, fresh,...
White
750ml
Bottle: $12.50
12 bottles: $12.25
This wine shows a light yellow color with green tints. The wine offers apple and pear fruits on the nose. Dry, fresh,...
White
1.0Ltr
Bottle: $26.95
12 bottles: $26.41
A combination of second press juice from all of the white wine holdings covering the entire four hectares. Because...
12 FREE
Red
750ml
Bottle: $19.94
12 bottles: $19.54
Ruby red in color with aromas of wild blackberry and ripe plum. Intense and elegant on the palate with notes of red...
12 FREE
Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.00
12 bottles: $14.25
Intense aromas of marasca cherry and redcurrant with hints of blackberry jelly. Dynamic and enveloping on the palate...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $24.90
Cannonau is a typical grapevine in Sardinia that here in Usini assumes unique organoleptic nuances that are found in...
12 FREE
Red
750ml
Bottle: $19.20
12 bottles: $15.44
Ruby color. Elegant, with fresh fig and ripe red berry aromas (black cherry, wild strawberry), as well as delicate...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $14.95
12 bottles: $14.65
The Beau! Beaujolais comes from a forty year-old high-density vineyard. Fermentation is traditional, 100%...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $28.94
12 bottles: $28.36
If there is a red grape more expressive in its youth than Valdiguié, we've yet to meet it. It's so many vibrant,...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.94
12 bottles: $16.60
Brouilly is one of the Cru Beaujolais, which are known for producing excellent, food friendly, underrated wines at a...
12 FREE
Dessert/Fortified Wine
375ml
Bottle: $65.94
The acidity of the Riesling grape keeps this sweet dessert wine in balance with notes of honey and caramel.
12 FREE
White
750ml
Bottle: $19.94
12 bottles: $19.54
12 FREE
Sale
White
1.0Ltr
Bottle: $14.92 $15.83
12 bottles: $14.62
Delicate fresh green apple fruity aromas; displaying flavors of lemon; lime and peaches; solid fruit core; rich in...
White
750ml
Bottle: $20.95
12 bottles: $20.53
This is a very rich and creamy gruner veltliner, but you don’t feel the 14% until the very end, when a touch of...
12 FREE
JS
89
White
750ml
Bottle: $15.41
12 bottles: $13.99
Facing southeast, Holzagasse is located 1000 feet above sea level on top of a hill and, because of the steepness of...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $16.25
12 bottles: $15.93
Known in France as Grenache, this classic Cannonau is full-bodied, pure and authentic. It is a brilliant Ruby red and...
Red
750ml
Bottle: $15.99
12 bottles: $15.67
Savory undertones of grilled thyme, fresh earth and smoky mineral flank the steeped cherry and raspberry fruit...
12 FREE
WS
89
Sale
Red
750ml
Bottle: $20.88 $23.20
The Fleurie wine-making is traditional - whole clusters are kept, which leads to a semi-carbonic maceration as the...

Grenache Gamay Gruner Veltliner Ice Wine Mavrodaphne

The Grenache grape holds the honor of being the most widely planted wine grape varietal on earth. It has a long and impressive history, and has been the backbone of the some of the planet’s most respected and famed wine regions, blended with Syrah in regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape, and in certain other Loire and Languedoc regions where it reigns supreme as a single varietal wine grape. In other key areas, such as Spain’s La Rioja (where it is known as Garnacha Tinta), it is blended with Tempranillo to make that country’s signature red wine, and is widely used as a blending grape in other old and new world countries, due to its unique character and jammy, fruit forward character.


For a long time, the Grenache grape was somewhat looked down upon as an ignoble varietal, incapable of producing wines of any particular interest. However, times are very much changing - in the right hands, Grenache grapes result in astonishingly intense and complex wines, full of fascinating features, and capable of achieving plenty of expression. For a while now, Grenache has been a major player in Australian wines. While not yet quite as extensively planted down under as Shiraz is, the Barossa Valley is bringing out some of the finest examples of this grape’s wines in recent years.

The French wines of Beaujolais are widely regarded as some of the finest table wines in the world. This is due in part to the qualities of the Gamay grape, from which they are made. Gamay produces beautifully, juicy, rounded and gulpable red wines, usually drank young and full of their natural fruit character. However, it would be a mistake to say that Gamay is limited to easy-drinking, soft wines - it’s a highly flexible and versatile grape, capable of producing aged wines of serious complexity and structure, full of expression and fascinating characteristics.


The majority of Gamay wines from France are labeled under Beaujolais Villages or Beaujolais, and these are the standard table wines we’re used to seeing in French restaurants, at bistros, and at our local wine store. Usually great value for money, these are the light, slightly acidic examples of what the grape can do. Far more interesting are those Gamay wines from the 10 cru villages, just north of Beaujolais, where generations of expertise and a unique soil type made up of granitic schist result in far more unique, complicated wines. The best examples of Gamay feature intense aromatics, all black fruit and forest fare, and are worth cellaring for a few years.

Gruner Veltliner is a pale skinned white wine grape varietal most closely associated with central European countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In recent years, it has spread somewhat to several New World countries, where it is becoming gradually more popular and regularly seen in wine stores. One of the main attractions of this grape varietal for winemakers is the fact that it is highly versatile, and can be used for the production of several different wine styles, including young, dry white wines, excellent sparkling wines, and it is also a grape varietal which is well suited for aging Gruner Veltliner has the ability to express much of its terroir, and the best examples are generally those which are full of delightfully mineral-rich flavors alongside the more usual notes of citrus fruits and peach.

In the Archaea region, high in the Northern Peloponnese mountains, the predominant grape varietal grown is the prized Mavrodaphne. Meaning 'Black Laurel', the Mavrodaphne grapes have extremely dark skins, and ripen slowly under the Greek sunshine, helped by the mineral rich soils the vines thrive in. This grape varietal is mostly used to produce the opaque, inky fortified wine of the same name, which is popular all over Greece and elsewhere in the world. This fortified wine allows the grapes to really show off their complex and fascinating flavors, which range from a rich marzipan to flavors of bitter chocolate, sweet coffee, dried figs and prunes, as well as plenty of jammy fruit notes.

Mavrodaphne is produced in a traditional method which involves leaving the grape juice exposed to the sun in large vats, before having its fermentation halted by the addition of various distillates taken from previous successful vintages. This mixture contains plenty of residual sugar, which gives the end result its characteristic sticky sweetness, and also helps with the next fermentation process, which typically takes place in large underground cellars. The final product is a heady drink, absolutely bursting with unusual, rich and sweet flavors and carried in a dark and slightly viscous Port-like liquid.

Mavrodaphne grapes are also used for the production of still red wines, but are generally blended with varietals such as Agiorgitiko or imported grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon. Mavrodaphne grapes are excellent for mellowing more acidic varieties, and producing deliciously rounded wines, which have taken the international market by storm in recent decades.

Additional Information on Greek Wines


Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?